Tuesday, May 15, 2007

This is more like it. Maybe the assholes don't always win, and it is possible to thrive as a self-respecting artist in a predominantly online environment. It's just that now you don't have to answer to The Suits; you have to answer to your fans...over and over again.

I've been thinking that the future for musicians might lie in touring. While I've noticed record stores growing more empty by the month, live shows are as popular as ever. People are still really gung-ho about going out and rocking out. The Net may be a lousy music-delivery system (to my Luddite POV), but it's a fantastic environment in which to promote yourself. I'd say more than half the shows I attend I read about on Blabbermouth or some forum or other. Half-full rooms are a rarity these days, and post-show scrums around the merch table are pretty common.

1 comment:

Ray Van Horn, Jr. said...

definitely touring is the final frontier for bands anymore, considering there's triple the amount from 20 years ago and the selection process for promotion is even more stringent. I feel bad going to a show anymore when I trip on a couple of bands and only have enough dinero to support one of them. It's kind of like a lot of lower tier bands tend to suffer a little because the later bands are grabbing the attention and bucks. It's a hard luck biz, for sure.